Using Graded Feedback to Adjust Your Future Approach Schoolwork
Hopefully, by this point in the semester, your faculty member has graded at least a couple of assignments. This could be a quiz, exam, paper, discussion post, presentation, or other assignment. Although it may feel as though a quiz that is worth 1.5% of your entire class grade is not worth dissecting - trust me, it is!
Regardless of the weight such an assignment has on your total grade, each of these grades represents an opportunity for you to learn from your mistakes, learn how your professor grades, and adjust your approach as needed to improve future performance in the class. As final exams approach, learning how your professor grades and what weaknesses you have in the class will be critical to obtaining the grade you desire to have in the course. Below are five steps on how to leverage graded assignments to adjust your study strategy and obtain the grade you want.
Step One: Review the Preparation Timeline
First, take time to think about the timeline to prepare or complete the assignment. Did you start early enough? Reviewing for a quiz 15 minutes before class is not going to be enough time, especially as the content gets more complex and, most likely, as the assignments get more challenging and graded more harshly. Exams require at least ten days of studying for information to transition into your long-term memory. Long papers need just about the same so you can have time to edit the assignment prior to submission.
Step Two: Review the Preparation Approach
Second, review what you did to prepare and how you prepared. So, not only write down the overarching action you did but be specific with the process and action steps you took. For instance, whenever students tell me, “I reviewed my notes,” I ask them to define that with actions. Did you just re-read them? Did you make test questions and take them? Did you rewrite your notes word for word? Did you make summaries of the notes in your own words? Did you create mind maps based on your notes? I have gotten a wide variety of answers when I have asked for details, so be specific with what you did and how you did it so you can truly determine if it was sufficient for the next feedback opportunity.
After being as specific as possible with the steps you took to prepare for the assignment, ask yourself the following: Was what I did and how I approached my work enough or do I need to do more in the future? I want to encourage you all to move into a space of more-active study strategies and studying best practices by teaching a friend, studying over time, self-testing, and practicing application questions. Maybe for your research paper, you only used the top two sources from your search because you only technically needed two instead of reviewing ten source options to select the two that are the strongest to support your argument.
Step Three: Review in Class Completion
Now, if your graded assignment was an in-class exam, quiz, paper, or presentation, think about when you completed it. When you received the assignment details, what was the first thing you did after writing your name? I suggest you first read through all the steps and questions. Then, decide how you are going to approach the assessment.
Pro Tip: If you need to write a paper or short answer, take a few minutes to job down an outline, then re-read the prompt to ensure you have everything answered, if something is missing add it into your outline.
If you presented in your class, how was your pace, word choice, “um” usage, and use of the space in the classroom? Take a second to try and remember how you were feeling. Our feelings directly impact our ability to perform in the moment. Were you anxious? Try to pinpoint your top area of growth for your next in-class presentation in this class or a future course.
Step Four: Review the Feedback
Now that you have a graded assignment, take this as a learning opportunity to adjust the approach to the assignment or course. As you review the professor's feedback, determine if there are any trends where you struggled.
Step Five: Decide Positives and Opportunities to Change
Can you pinpoint what went right (and what went wrong) in the assignment that explains the majority of the points you didn't earn? Use this information now to adjust your approach to the class. For the things that went right, take note of how you can apply this same approach to future assignments in this course (and your other courses). When you determine an area of growth or improvement, use that feedback to impact your approach to the assignments in this class.
Examples of Using Feedback
If you do not remember a certain topic, you should make sure to start your studying early enough so you have enough time for the information to be in your long-term memory. Or, not remembering a lot of the content could also result from a lack of information about the exam content. If this was the problem, you should make sure to talk to the Teacher’s Assistant or faculty member to clarify the topics that will be included in the next assessment. If you missed this topic because of a lack of organization, then, you should create a plan before the next similar assignment. Once you create a plan, confirm that it contains all the topics necessary.
If all the questions you got wrong were regarding the textbook, you probably didn’t review the text enough altogether. If this was the issue, I would make sure that you read the textbook regularly during the course and take strong notes that you can use to review. Then, as you review your notes prior to an exam, make sure to look back through the course materials to complete practice questions to prepare.
You should also consider if you seem to have problems with certain question types (e.g., application questions). If you did, this likely means you need to practice more active strategies, application examples, and test questions when you study. Usually, this happens because your studying was too simple and not at a level of thinking that matches the assessment.
On a chemistry test, you may see that you forgot to apply significant figures appropriately throughout the exam and, therefore have points taken off your grade. In this example, this is something simple that you need to start paying attention to during homework assignments and as you complete practice problems while you review content.
When you write an essay, you may see that you get feedback or scoring on an assignment rubric. It could be possible that you either did not know there was one or where to locate it prior to submitting the assignment. In this scenario, make sure to find future rubrics or use the categories on this initial rubric to improve the areas of a future paper.
On a different essay, you could have no grading rubric, but you are provided detailed instructions. After you have feedback that says, “No title page as required,” you should learn to examine the assignment description carefully. I suggest in the future, you do not skim the assignment instructions. Instead, you should focus on the paper's requirements and ensure you can check them all off as complete before you submit your next assignment.
Now that you have steps to follow and multiple examples, including both exams and papers, you can find ways to implement your feedback on future assignments in the same (and other) classes. Remember, learning is a learned behavior, and it takes time and feedback to improve, so make sure to use every one of your assignments as an opportunity for growth and not a failure.
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